4 weeks in

4 weeks. That's how long we've been in Cincinnati so far.

After 4 weeks, we live in our apartment, with the furniture we chose and assembled (see here for Maarten's first IKEA experience). We managed to open a bank account, I got my identity verified by a notary so I could transfer the electricity account to my name, we got internet set up and our socials sent. It's mostly boring admin stuff and I just wanted to mention that moving is not ALL fun, mainly because of that. But all in all, I'd say we've made good progress. Our apartment really starts to feel like home!

I also wanted to share a few 'first times' from the past week:

*first time in a Kentucky bar*
No one told me before we moved to Kentucky that you are still allowed to smoke here in bars - at least, in Covington, which is where we live... I was shocked. The second observation is that everybody, everybody drinks beer, yes, also the women. So being Belgian that put me in a weird position, asking for a glass of wine and being thé exception. Third thing is that it was a leaving drink for an English colleague. In the UK, those drinks would last at least until 11pm whereas here most people had left by 9pm. We managed to stay on until almost 10pm with another colleague :) But still - it's different

*first Helping Hands activity*
dunnhumby is proud to give back to the community they work in. After the set up of Helping Hands in France and the amazing work we've been doing there, I was keen to get involved into Helping Hands US. Last week, I participated in my first activity, which was serving food to the people in the Drop Inn center. 4 of us served dinner. I got complimented by one young woman on my accent :). It felt good to make a (small but) tangible impact.

Still, I was told not to walk around the building because it would be dangerous. And that is something I'm definitely not used to yet - how one block in Cincinnati can be 'dangerous' and the next one 'ok', I need to get to grips with that...

*First night out*
I got invited to a girls' night out on Friday night: first Mexican food and cocktails, then to a bar called the Righteous Room in downtown Cincinnati. It reminded me that girls across the world have more in common than that they are different and I had a great time!

Interestingly I also learned a bit more about the South of the States and the old traditions there of using the parents or grandparents' surnames as the middle name or even first name for the kids.

*And do I miss France?*
For all my frustrated comments about Paris in my blog, I do admit that I miss some things - apart from mes copines, there is the Notre Dame seen from the back at sunset, the baguettes, my vélib and also, the nostalgy for the French language starts cropping up. Luckily there is an "Alliance française de Cincinnati" so in 2 weeks I'm going to a French conversation group :)

So long, farewell!